National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute Clinical Proteomics Working Group report.
(33/276)
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Clinical Proteomics Working Group was charged with identifying opportunities and challenges in clinical proteomics and using these as a basis for recommendations aimed at directly improving patient care. The group included representatives of clinical and translational research, proteomic technologies, laboratory medicine, bioinformatics, and 2 of the NHLBI Proteomics Centers, which form part of a program focused on innovative technology development. This report represents the results from a one-and-a-half-day meeting on May 8 and 9, 2003. For the purposes of this report, clinical proteomics is defined as the systematic, comprehensive, large-scale identification of protein patterns ("fingerprints") of disease and the application of this knowledge to improve patient care and public health through better assessment of disease susceptibility, prevention of disease, selection of therapy for the individual, and monitoring of treatment response. (+info)
How do patents and economic policies affect access to essential medicines in developing countries?
(34/276)
This paper studies the relationship between patents and access to essential medicines. It finds that in sixty-five low- and middle-income countries, where four billion people live, patenting is rare for 319 products on the World Health Organization's Model List of Essential Medicines. Only seventeen essential medicines are patentable, although usually not actually patented, so that overall patent incidence is low (1.4 percent) and concentrated in larger markets. This and other results shed light on the policy dialogue among public health activists, the pharmaceutical industry, and governments that is often based on mistaken premises about how patents affect corporate revenues or the health of the world's poorest. Pragmatism and greater flexibility are urged, so that policy may better concentrate on the greater causes of epidemic mortality, which now pose unprecedented threats to global peace and security. (+info)
Genomics knowledge and equity: a global public goods perspective of the patent system.
(35/276)
Genomics, the comprehensive examination of an organism's entire set of genes and their interactions, will have a major impact on the way disease is diagnosed, prevented and treated in the new millennium. Despite the tremendous potential it holds for improving global health, genomics challenges policy-makers to ensure that its benefits are harnessed equitably across populations and nations. The classification of genomics as a global public good and the inequity encountered in the development and application of genomics knowledge are outlined in this paper, We examine the effect of the current patent system on the distribution of costs and benefits relating to genomics knowledge between countries of different economic strength. The global public goods concept provides a normative economic rationale for the modification of certain aspects of the current patent system and for the creation of complementary mechanisms to respond to the health needs of low-income and middle-income countries. (+info)
Random drift and culture change.
(36/276)
We show that the frequency distributions of cultural variants, in three different real-world examples--first names, archaeological pottery and applications for technology patents--follow power laws that can be explained by a simple model of random drift. We conclude that cultural and economic choices often reflect a decision process that is value-neutral; this result has far-reaching testable implications for social-science research. (+info)
Competition: an antidote to the high price of prescription drugs.
(37/276)
Patent protection and factors unique to prescription drugs weaken the forces keeping prices near costs for other products. A growing public consensus that affordable drugs should be available to all is likely to increase the upward pressure on prices. To restore competition to all parts of the pharmaceutical industry, we propose a new institute at the National Institutes of Health that would compete with the private sector for pharmaceutical intellectual property by establishing competition for research and development contracts open to public and private institutions; retain the resulting patents; and grant cost-free, nonexclusive licenses to all qualified producers. (+info)
A strategy for obtaining social benefits from the gene revolution.
(38/276)
The strategy described in the present paper offers details about the possibility for Brazil to play a more substantial role in the gene revolution. If successfully applied, the powerful science-based technology currently available in Brazil can contribute to extend the benefits of the gene revolution to the poorest countries, very much like the Green Revolution did in the past, thereby reducing the hunger syndrome which claimed the lives of millions of people in some Asian countries, particularly Pakistan and India, decades ago. In his visit to Brazil in February 2004, Norman Borlaug had the opportunity to witness the success of Brazilian agriculture. At a Conference held at ESALQ - Superior School of Agriculture Luiz de Queiroz in Piracicaba, SP, Brazil, he stated that the 21st century revolution will come from Brazil in the area of agriculture. He also said that reducing hunger is essential for the world to achieve socioeconomic stability. A central question remains unanswered: who will fund this revolution? The FAO 2003-2004 Annual Report listed the barriers preventing the gene revolution from reaching the poorest countries: inadequate regulatory procedures-Intellectual Property Rights and Biosafety, poorly functioning seed delivering systems and weak domestic plant breeding capacity; all are discussed in this paper. (+info)
Are patents for methods of medical treatment contrary to the ordre public and morality or "generally inconvenient"?
(39/276)
"No one has advanced a just and logical reason why reward for service to the public should be extended to the inventor of a mechanical toy and denied to the genius whose patience, foresight, and effort have given a valuable new [discovery] to mankind" (Katopis CJ. Patents v patents: policy implications of recent patent legislation. St John's Law Review 1997;71:329). The law around the world permits the granting of patents for drugs, medical devices, and cosmetic treatment of the human body. At the same time, patentability for a method of treatment of the same body is denied in some countries on various public policy grounds. Is there any logical justification for this distinction? Are methods of medical treatment not as vital to the health or even to the life of a patient as drugs or medical devices? Why is a cosmetic result patentable and a curative result not? (+info)
Ethics of testicular stem cell medicine.
(40/276)
The ethical issues raised by advances in reproductive technology allowing the transplantation of testicular stem cells to enable infertile men and cancer patients, including the pre-pubertal, to have children, and to provide new contraceptive prospects for fertile men are discussed. Consideration of respect for the patient's autonomy, the need for informed consent and the health of any offspring resulting from such a procedure are included. Topics covered include: the problems raised by cases needing consent for the transplantation of testicular stem cells from pre-pubertal and adolescent patients; the legal status of stem cells; the arguements for treating such tissue as property which might serve as a means of guaranteeing respect for patients' rights in disputed cases; aspects of patents and the ethics of allowing commercial traffic of such material; questions relating to health and safety, as well as xenotransplantation technology in humans; and posthumous procurement use of germ cells from minors. Proposals are made to enhance informed and effective consent, while supporting patient determination, choice, autonomy and technological advances. The paper appeals to the emerging EU directives in relation to tissue procurement, storing and use of tissue and cells to adopt a pragmatic and meaningful position which will help enhance patient determination and autonomy in relation to the emerging technologies in reproductive medicine, whilst providing a pragmatic way forward for fertility clinics and laboratories to function. (+info)